Field
The present disclosure relates generally to optical fibers, and particularly to bend insensitive optical fibers comprising an intermediate clad layer positioned between an inner clad layer and an outer clad layer.
Technical Background
Glass optical fibers with improved bend loss properties have recently been of significant interest in the telecommunications field. Techniques for improving fiber bending properties can play important roles in many types of fibers, including transmission fibers used in long distance, multimode fibers used in the emerging area of fiber to the home applications, and dispersion compensation fibers where bending loss has limited many designs from practical use. In certain applications such as fiber to the home applications, the ability to form a tight bending diameter is desired with negligible bending loss. Many of the proposed solutions for this problem involve significant modification of the fiber refractive index profile.